23 November 2012 University of Pavia

1. Interpreting Visuals: Classroom Strategies For Language Teachers 23 November 2012University of Pavia Dr. Holger Briel University of Nicosia holger.briel@gmail.com

2. Visual Production and the Classroom • Visual strategies are a knowledge movement bridging consumption and production • They allow for getting the maximum out of your classes • Viewing strategies have to be differently fine-tuned for every classroom • However, broad guidelines can be given

3. The Need for Visual Literacy Visual Literacy can: • develop critical thinking skills in relation to visual images; • enhance verbal and written literacy skills and vocabulary to be able to talk and write about images; • introduce image production, manipulation techniques and software to children at an early stage; • integrate visual literacy across all curriculum areas; • ensure there is a balance between visual and textual literacies in the classroom; • be aware of visual literacy principles in the design of teaching and learning objects; • pose questions to students about images; • encourage students to look at underlying assumptions that are embedded in the images surrounding young people; • encourage students to critically investigate images and to analyse and evaluate the values inherently contained in images. (Bamford 2011)

4. I VideoBefore and After • If you are able to do productions within the framework of your classes, it will pay to implement a before/afterset-up, allowing students to express their ideas about video production and reception, giving their expectations, aesthetics, etc. And then doing the same exercise after they have produced something. The differential in attitudes and aptitudes is at the core of what visual and media literacy are trying to achieve – i.e. understanding production and dissemination mechanisms in order to challenge and question one’s own and the students’ reception mechanisms. This usually proves to be an amazing eye opener for students.

5. Discover Constructivism! • Encourage media literacy by helping students recognize elements of video production, such as camera angles, music, shot composition, and the role of the actors. Students can analyze a video's effectiveness, and discuss the ways in which audiences might be manipulated or influenced by choices made during production. • = Estrangement strategies • = Reversing ‘suspension of disbelief’ (Coleridge)

6. To Begin: • Preparation is essential! • Avoid passive viewing, guided viewing is need in order to make students active participants • Use predictive tools, e.g.: Use the pause control to stop a scene and have students predict what will happen next. With Audio off, have students predict the situation and characterizations based on viewing an entire scene without the sound.

7. The Power of the Pause Button Use the Pause button to: • Control the pace and amount of information • Check for comprehension • Solicit inferences and predictions • Define a word in context • Highlight a point • Ask students to make connections to other topics or real-world events • Change the pace by asking students to come up and point to something on the screen, or write in journals, or replicate what they have seen

8. Speaking Practice • Role Plays: Have students role play a scene, practicing the lines of dialogue for correct intonation and emphasis. • On-Location Interviews: Have students circulate around the classroom and interview each other using questions contained in the video segment. • Information Gap: Have half the class see a segment without audio and the other half hear it without the picture. Students from each half of the class then pair up, talk about the situation and characters, and act out the scene. • Strip Dialogue Scenes: Write dialogue lines on separate strips of paper, distribute them randomly, and have students recreate the scene by putting the lines together. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/globalconnections/multimedia/strategies.html)

9. II ImagesKey Questions to help in the analysis of images (from http://www.sharpnetwork.eu/kit/how-can-we-analyse-image-film-and-sound ) • Issues • Information • Who? • Persuasion • Assumptions

10. Issues • What issues are being shown in the image? • How is the way the issue is shown in the image similar to or different from how you see this issue in the world? • What might this image mean to someone who sees it? • What is the message of this image?

11. Information • Where has the information in the image come from? • What information has been included and what information has been left out? • What proportion of the image could be inaccurate? • What information presented is factual/manipulated/framed? • What is the relationship between the image and any text? • What impact does the size of images within the picture have?

12. Who? • What kind of people are depicted in the image? • Even if there are no actual people in the image, whose cultures or experiences are depicted? • Who created the image and for what purpose? • Who is the intended audience for the image? • Whose point of view does the image take?

13. Persuasion • Why have certain media been chosen? • Why was a particular image chosen? • Why was the image arranged that way? • Is the information contained in the image factual? • What devices have been used to get the message across to the viewer? • How has the message been affected by what has been left out or is not shown?

14. Assumptions • What attitudes are assumed? • Whose voice is heard? • Whose voice is not heard? • What experiences or points of view are assumed? • What do my assumptions tell about myself?

15. Higher Order Learning Outcomes • Distinguishing fact from opinion • Analyzing and constructing points of view • Localising content If non-local content is used, locating regions and countries on a map builds geography and mapping skills. This skill helps students understand the connection among geography, politics, and natural resources. But it goes beyond that: localising foreign events allows for a deeper understanding of these events AND the local givens.

16. Example: What is typically English/Italian/Greek… • Learning Objectives: Learning about foreign cultural artifacts/practices; comprehend that a target culture is not monolithic, but in all likelihood multiculturally determined; ability to visually compare cultures; acquire new vocabulary pertaining to culture; comprehend that steroetypes oftentimes are visually codified.

17. Example: What is typically English/Italian/Greek… • Learning Outcomes: Students who successfully complete this module will be better able to understand the intricacies of culture building and cultural manifestations; they will have learned how to visually decipher such manifestations and will have been sensitised to multicultural issues in their local cultures; acquisition and application of new vocabulary pertaining to everyday culture.

18. Example: What is typically English/Italian/Greek… • What is typical English Food? • or

19. Example • What is typically English? or

20. Example • What is typical for Germany? • or

21. Example • What is typical for Italy? • ………………. or ……………………

22. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION! Holger Briel holger.briel@gmail.com

23. Resources: • Briel, Holger et al. Understanding Visual Productions. http://www.sharpnetwork.eu/ • Bamford, Anne (2011). The Visual Literacy White Paperhttp://www.adobe.com/uk/education/pdf/adobe_visual_literacy_paper.pdf • SHARP http://www.sharpnetwork.eu/ • US National Teacher Training Institute http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/ntti/resources/video2.html • US Public Broadcasting Organisation http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/globalconnections/multimedia/strategies.html :